


Humanity

by ShanleenKinnJaskey



Series: Poetry [42]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Free Verse, Homosexuality, Love, Poetry, Sins, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-05-27 07:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6274609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShanleenKinnJaskey/pseuds/ShanleenKinnJaskey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of poems about humanity. How we see, how we love, and how we die.</p><p>In a word: an experiment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GwenTheTribble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwenTheTribble/gifts), [maryams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maryams/gifts).
  * Inspired by [My Poetry](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1883358) by [GwenTheTribble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GwenTheTribble/pseuds/GwenTheTribble). 



I.  
is war something that travels through the veins, a genetic disorder, a virus, an infection that dirties the blood and poisons the brain, a sickness, a sin?

you call out kisses as sins but overlook holes in people’s souls, blood spurting out of gunshot wounds, call them glorious (what is the glory in stealing someone's life, their hopes and dreams? what is the glory in ruining years and years and years of work in a single moment, watching as people get blown into bits of broken hearts?)

kissing her saves me, saves my soul. her eyes, her lips, her touch- they make me feel human, make me feel like i'm not a monster

(do you know what i've done? loving her is the least of my sins, if you can even call it that)

how is a kiss a sin, but killing someone who kisses is not? how is it a sin to press flesh together, draw comfort from someone's loving touch, when you can shoot an innocent person on the street and plead 'it was a murder but not a crime'?

how can someone's face burn in shame because they are in love, but men and women can cheat on their spouses and go about like they're innocent? how come i must hide my love, hide my affection, for fear of death but you can cheat and laugh it off?

how is it that when a gay man admires a straight man he's considered 'predatory' but if a lesbian woman rejects a straight man it's a 'challenge'?

how is it sin to love, and justice to hate?


	2. Selfless/suicide

II.  
tell me that suicidal kids are wrong, that they are selfish, horrible people. you told them to do it, you told them they were nothing but an abomination and a sin. you told them to stop being who they were, the only thing they could be- they were being selfless. they were giving you what you wanted.

you asked for it, darling, you wanted it- they were giving you what you wanted.


	3. Blood/Sweat/Tears

III.  
my tears are hot and bitter, the hot, salty residue of the boiling anger within. you call them crocodile tears, call them dramatic, unneccesary, weak- they are evidence of my humanity. they are the evidence of the fact that i have a soul, that i can still feel. so call me weak but remember that robots are iron and steel, unfeeling beings, and humans are flesh and blood, capable of getting hurt. my scarred heart, my bleeding soul- they make me human.

carving at the flesh on his wrists to dig out the shards of metal wedged into his heart- that is human. that is dreadfully, horribly human. you call it wrong- it may be- but it makes him feel right. it makes him feel normal, that stupid thing you need everyone to be, that given definition of how life should be.

she runs, muscles burning and lungs struggling to take in the oxygen they need, until she is strong enough to fight off the same voices who called her abnormal for being weak. surprise, surprise- they'll just find new things to hate. if you are strong you are predator, if you are weak you are prey, and neither are what you are supposed to be.

blood, sweat, tears- the evidence of my humanity. how come they are considered weakness, if they are the very things that prove that i am what i am supposed to be?

(robots can't sweat. artifices can't bleed. facades can't cry.)


	4. Art

listen closely- it's a song, a sonata, a symphony, a crescendo.

the song plays, the notes striking _one two three do re mi_ notes flying as fingers do, across keys, across strings, across one's heart

watch closely- flying across the stage, toes barely caressing the ground as hands, feet spin-

pause, bend backward, leap close but never land-

(flying is easy- fall, aim for the ground, and miss)

examine closely- each brush stroke has an emotion. each painting has a story. each color has _meaning_. 

_-impressionist, baroque, renaissance, surrealist, rococo, romantic-_

each has its own taste, its own flavor ( _breathe in, breathe deep, breathe wet paint and canvas, the smell of catharsis_ )

love closely, love until you fly, love until every single part of your heart breaks, shatters, bleeds all over the canvas-

bleed out into notes and into melodies, into adagios and into pirouettes, into chiaroscuro and into grisaille- bleed into art, make others _feel_ because that is what art _is-_

_**feeling** _


	5. tomorrow,today,yesterday (A Love Story)

i have no idea when we fell in love  
(today,tomorrow,yesterday)  
i only know that one day we kiss  
and (falling,flying,never landing   
either way)i don't know how we  
end

i search (fail,succeed) for the memory  
of you (are you dead?alive?nonexistent?)  
there is no way you aren't there  
(you have to be)


	6. Experiment

ever wondered if we're an experiment,

if we're only version 1.0 of whatever perfect beings God was planning to create?

'cause by the name of the great god (that may or may not exist)

above, we sure as hell aren't perfect.

perfection? ha.

7.0 billion of us and we still can't quite get it right.

we leave behind our debts (our deaths) to the next generation, to our children and their children-

how are we could we be perfect if we just leave our sins behind for others to deal with?


End file.
